Interview: DaMarcus Beasley

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AMERICAN hoping to put problems behind him and win call-up, finds Andrew Smith

THERE ARE hard-luck stories in football. The player who waits long and weary for his chance, then takes it big style only to be struck down by injury, is a typical one. The player who suffers this fate, then has his car blown up by a petrol bomb as he recuperates, is a not-so-typical one.

 

But DaMarcus Beasley has no interest in presenting himself as the atypical player when discussing his possible return to Rangers' first-team for this afternoon's hosting of Hibernian – almost six weeks after tearing thigh muscles. The recent destruction of his BMW in Glasgow's West End he initially wrote of on his Twitter page, but now says he "can't really talk about it".

 

His amiable, expansive chat he reserves for the prospects that a club comeback could allay fears of not making the United States squad for the World Cup finals. And, although he expresses a desire to stay in Scotland thereafter, the chances of him earning another contract with the financially-challenged Ibrox club on the expiry of his current deal in the summer seem as slim as his skeletal frame.

 

Beasley was producing the best form of a Rangers career that hasn't seen him produce much of any form – not helped by a cruciate ligament injury costing him most of the 2007-08 season – when he suffered his latest ailment. The Ã?£700,000 signing from PSV Eindhoven in the summer of 2007 had only racked up four straight games when struck down. But in scoring during a 3-0 win at Tannadice and then a 6-1 mauling of Motherwell, he was considered a central player in the club's most impressive spell for a couple of years.

 

"Yeah, it made it worse that the team was playing well and I was contributing after the gaffer put me in," he says. "Everything was up and up at the time. I've had a lot of injuries throughout my career here at Rangers, but hopefully this is the last one. It has been the worst period. I've never had so many injuries, and always different things. If it's not my hamstring, it's my knee. If it's not my knee, it's my thigh. If it's not my thigh, it's my ankle. I've never had this before.

 

"I need to make sure I take care of myself a lot better. Maybe I need to ask Davie Weir what it is he does in the summertime because I definitely need to do that. I'm getting to a time in my career when I need to look after myself a lot better so I don't get these injuries."

 

Yet, the picture looked bleak for Beasley earlier this season when he was fit and simply not considered. Until November, he had only made one first-team appearance – against Dundee in the Co-operative Insurance Cup.

 

"It was important for myself, me personally, my confidence," he says. "I was fit and not getting a game and that's always tough. The name of the game is getting out there and showing what you can do. Two and a half years ago when the gaffer bought me he saw something in me and I wanted to make sure that he still knows what I can do now. I feel confident on the pitch, I just needed a run of games and got that before the injury. If I get a run of games I feel like I can help the team. Friday was my first day back in full training, but it felt good. I don't know about Sunday. I think I feel ready to play again. My thigh feels strong. I've done a lot of gym work."

 

His past fine work for his country in the course of his 89 caps appears as if it might be overlooked by US coach Bob Bradley. Beasley has not played for his national team since last summer's Confederations Cup and a recent phone call between the pair does not seem to have provided him with any grounds for optimism.

 

"I spoke to him about two and a half weeks ago. It was a good conversation. We got a lot of things out that needed to be said and that was it. We spoke and were on the same page about what's going to happen in the summer," he says, admitting banter has "been going on every day" between him and fellow US internationalist Maurice Edu and their Algerian team-mate Madjid Bougherra after the two countries were drawn in the same group.

 

"(I'm concerned at the possibility of missing South Africa] because I missed the last four games of qualifying, so it's obviously in my head that there's a chance I could miss the World Cup. Its very disappointing for myself personally. I never thought I'd be in this position until later in my career, but it's happened and I've got to live with it. I've got to show the Rangers manager I can play and then show the American manager that I'm a player he can use in the World Cup.

 

"There's a lot to think about. In a World Cup year, if I don't sign again for Rangers it would help if I do go to South Africa. If I do well, being a free agent, a lot of doors could open for myself and it could be a good thing.

 

"My first thing is to get fit and play and see if Rangers want to keep me. I have to talk to them and see what they want to do. I've never wanted to leave Rangers, its just been about me wanting to play. Rangers is a great club and if they want me to stay I'll definitely stay."

 

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